New Directions is a glee club originating at William McKinley High School. It is given the name of "New Directions" after Will takes over the group. The group wins Sectionals for the three years it is led by Will, and although they place third at Regionals in 2010, they place first at Regionals 2011 with the original songs: Get It Right and Loser Like Me, as they do at Regionals 2012 consisting of three songs; two performed by New Directions, and a third sung by the former Troubletones.

In Swan Song, they lose Sectionals for the first time in four years, leading to disbandment and The Choir Room being occupied by The Cheerios. Despite this they still hold regular meetings and performances in whatever areas they are able to find. In Naked, the Lima Municipal Court ban the Warblers from competing due to using performance enhancers, effectively reinstating New Directions. The club yet again won Regionals in All or Nothing.

In The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester, the Warblers combine with New Directions after Dalton Academy burns down and gain official uniforms for the first time. The red blazers were created by Blaine and Kurt to signify the joining of the two rival clubs into teammates.

In We Built This Glee Club, the New Directions win the 2014 Western Ohio Sectional Championship against Vocal Adrenaline and The Falconers. In Dreams Come True, it is revealed that New Directions also won the 2015 Nationals (and prior to that, the 2015 Regionals). Their victory has made a huge impact on the school: William McKinley High School became arts-oriented and is renamed WMHS for Arts with Will hired as its principal, as three more glee clubs (including the return of The Troubletones) are created and over 30 people join New Directions.

Sub Groups

As the name suggests, this group consists of the male members of New Directions. This group was created/founded in the episode Vitamin D after Mr. Schue announced that there will be a Boys vs. Girls Mash-up competition.

As the name suggests, this group consists of the female members (and, on some occasions, Kurt) of New Directions. Just like the New Directions Boys, this group was created/founded in the episode Vitamin D after Mr. Schue announced that there will be a Boys vs Girls Mash-up competition.

As the name suggests, this group consists of members who have graduated from New Directions and McKinley High. Finn, Kurt, Mercedes, Mike, Puck, Quinn, Rachel, and Santana graduated in Goodbye, whilst Artie, Blaine, Brittany, Sam, and Tina graduated in New Directions. Joe, Rory, Sugar, and Unique must have graduated between Season Five and Season Six, but this was not shown.

In Throwdown, when Sue was appointed as Co-Director of New Directions; in a plan to paint Will as racially insensitive, Sue takes all she considers the minority members of New Directions under her. It is no longer active.

This group consists of the members that Sue did not choose. It is no longer active.

Created in "I Am Unicorn" in hope of improving the dance skills of most of the members of New Directions who are having trouble with their dancing skills. When Sue becomes apart of New Directions, nearing the end of Season Three, to get back her Cheerios, she makes sure she works them hard at Booty Camp so they can win Nationals. By Season Five, it seems it is no longer active.

Originally a rival glee club which have ND's former members Mercedes, Santana and Brittany as leads. After they lost in Sectionals the 3 are offered to rejoin ND and they brought the rest/some of the Troubletones with them.

It is revealed in Dreams Come True that Will has revived the Troubletones as one of three new show choirs at McKinley when it becomes a performing arts school, along with a new all-boys team called the Duly Noted and a junior varsity team for those needing extra practice before joining one of the major groups.

Originally one of New Directions main rival glee clubs, they join New Directions in The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester when their school burns to the ground and Kurt, Rachel, and Will extend an offer to Blaine.

Auditions

Rachel's audition.

Almost every member of the club auditioned, although some of them didn't because they already proved their talent like Puck, who was in Acafellas; Finn, who sung in the showers and was heard by Will; Matt and Mike, who danced to Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It); Sam, who sung with the New Directions Boys; Jesse and Blaine, who were the leads of Vocal Adrenaline and the Dalton Academy Warblers respectively and Joe, who was heard singing with The God Squad. However, Jacob and Lauren joined without an audition because they joined as quick replacements for Finn and Kurt, respectively. Ryder and Kitty didn't audition for New Directions due to their talent in the school production of Grease, and to complete the number of members needed for New Directions. Jane did not audition, but instead requested Rachel to let her join New Directions. Spencer joins after he was recruited and convinced by Sam.

Assignments

From time to time Mr. Schue, Finn (I Kissed a Girl and Dynamic Duets), Sue, Coach Roz and Coach Beiste (Choke), or Rachel and Kurt (Season Six) gives the students an assignment. The students (Tina, Artie and Blaine) also give an assignment to Finn and Will in Feud. This is the list of songs sung as an assignment.

Trivia

The name "New Directions" is a play on the words "Nude Erections," pointed out by Ryan Murphy in the visual commentary for Pilot who stated that "no one ever got that joke." This is reinforced by the fact Will gets the idea for the club name naked in bed.

The club never starts the season off with enough members.

Season One: The club had just been created and only five auditioned and were accepted. Another had been recruited.

Season Two: The club started off eleven members because Matt had transferred schools. Sam got his place in the club.

Season Three: The club started off with ten members because Sam transferred and Lauren and Quinn quit the club. Sam and Quinn rejoined, and Blaine filled in for Lauren.

Season Four: The club members started off with eight members because eight of them graduated and one was deported. Unique joined and open auditions were held.

Season Five: The club started off with nine members due to Brittany leaving in All or Nothing and Joe and Sugar quitting, without explanation, after that episode.

Season Six: After the club had been previously disbanded, the club has been re-created, and 4 members join in the second episode.

The first six members joined separately, while the second six joined in threes.

Artie and Tina are the members that have been in the club the longest.

Along with Puck and Mike, they are the four of the original twelve members who have never left the club.

However, in Acafellas, they came close to quitting after the cruel treatment of choreographer Dakota Stanley, but Rachel convinced them not to.

Though they supposedly meet before and after classes, it appears that they often meet during school hours, but this is not explained.

With the exception of Madison, Roderick, Skylar and the rest of the former Warblers, every member has dated, made out with, crushed on or slept with at least one other member.

Though the Glee club is not treated very kindly by the rest of the school, they get applauded and cheered for by McKinley students when performing at pep rally assemblies and invitationals.

Though Emma said in Special Education that for the competition Will always has Finn and Rachel sing a ballad with Mercedes wailing on the last note, Will has only featured this setlist once. He planned the setlist this way for Regionals, but he never planned a setlist for Sectionals in Season One; the glee club members did that on their own. However, she was probably referring to the normal group numbers that feature Finn and Rachel singing lead with Mercedes singing the last note as it was common practice throughout Season One.

In Sectionals, Rachel states that when you are last to perform you are the one that is fresh to the judges' minds and when first, everyone else has to measure up to you. They have never once lost in a competition when they were in the third or first slot, with the exception of 2013 Nationals, where they were in the last spot and came in second.

However, they were disqualified at Sectionals in Season Four because they left the stage when Marley fainted.

Will states in one episode that the New Directions were one of the most diverse clubs in the school. Members have included at least five Christians (Mercedes, Quinn, Sam, Joe, and Kitty), four Jews (Rachel, Puck, Jake, and Myron), at least one atheist (Kurt), seven LGBT members (Kurt, Blaine, Spencer, and Alistair being gay; Unique being transgender; Santana being a lesbian; and Brittany being bisexual), five African-Americans (Mercedes, Matt, Jake, Unique, and Jane), one Latina (Santana), three Asians (Tina, Mike, and Sunshine), two foreign exchange students (Rory and Sunshine), two physically disabled people (Artie and Quinn, but she recovered), two dyslexic people (Sam and Ryder), one junior high school student (Myron), and members of a different glee club (Jesse, Skylar and the Warblers).

So far Rachel, Finn, Santana, Tina, Puck, Mercedes, Brittany, Will, and Marley have all written at least one original song. Quinn aided in writing one, though unintentionally. Sue was also the inspiration for one of their original songs.

The only members who have never been slushied on-screen are Brittany, Lauren, Rory, Sugar, Joe, Ryder, Kitty, Roderick, Jane, Mason, Madison, Spencer, Myron and Alistair.